Apple's Shortcut app is, in my opinion, one of the most underrated apps in the Apple ecosystem. While it already has a built-in automation tool that creates custom commands and actions across hundreds of apps, my one big quibble with the Shortcuts app is how complicated it is to actually create a Shortcut. It took me a long time to figure out how, and making a new one still takes me about 10-15 minutes.

However, now in iOS 27, you'll be able to use Apple Intelligence to assemble a Shortcut for you based on your description of what you want it to do.

In Apple's example, a user wanted to let their partner know what time they'll get home each day when they leave work. The user described the main goal of the Shortcut, and Apple Intelligence automatically created a Shortcut that uses GPS to see when they leave work, calculate their ETA to home using Maps, and sends a text through Messages to their partner.

How might I apply this to my own life? I could ask Apple Intelligence to automatically play my workout playlist on Spotify when I hit the "start" button to record a workout in my Oura app. Or, my mom could finally utilize the Shortcuts app to solve the problem of her always misplacing her phone in her house (like mother, like daughter), by telling Apple Intelligence to turn her phone's volume to 100% and play a loud song when someone texts her "#findphone".